If only business travel was this easy

Until we can teleport, being organized and productive is your best bet

Spending hours waiting in airports, flying on planes and being confined to hotel rooms can rob even highly productive workers of their edge.

Photograph by: Mario Tama/Getty Images
, Freelance

You're hard-working and dedicated. When you're at work, you know how to get the job done and are regarded as highly productive.

But does your productivity slip when you travel for business?

Spending hours waiting in airports, flying on planes and being confined to hotel rooms can rob even highly productive workers of their edge.

Business travel should not cause your effectiveness on the job to slip, says productivity expert Ann Searles. But juggling all the balls effectively requires advance preparation and the adoption of certain behaviours.

As someone who travels extensively for business herself, Searles understands the subject from a personal perspective as well as a professional one.

"The first thing I recommend is a good travel agent. Put her on your speed dial and be real nice to her because she can save your fanny," said Searles, president of the Canada-Caribbean arm of the Institute for Business Technology, a company that helps businesses boost their productivity.

"It's fine to book trips online, but when things go wrong, who are you going to call on the Web? I was once in Toronto when the airline I was booked on went bankrupt. I called my travel agent in Montreal and she got me onto the next train out."

Then there was the time that Searles was in Nassau on a business trip when Hurricane Floyd hit.

"I put my mattress up against the patio door in my hotel and called my travel agent. She got me onto a flight and out of the country," she said.

She's also noticed that the treatment she receives from airline personnel differs according to the way she's dressed.

"You need to wear your best business casual when you travel. If you look professional, people at the desks in airports treat you nicer. And when there are problems, they'll find solutions. Wear the right costume and the part plays itself," she said.

Another sound reason to be dressed for business even if you're flying, says Searles, is you'll have an edge if your luggage goes astray.

"You'll be able to make that business presentation wearing the clothes that you have on your back. I learned this from other business people who said: 'Don't ask me how I learned this.' You don't want to learn the hard way."

Frequent travellers should consider paying for the use of VIP lounges in airports where the environment affords a quiet place to work.

Searles uses her spare time during business trips to get personal stuff done.

"I was in Sudbury recently and had time to buy a faucet at a store, which I took home. Alternately, you can spend your down time shopping online or buying things and having them shipped. It saves you time when you get home and gives you something to do in the evenings instead of channel surfing or sitting in a bar."

Executives who travel extensively should ensure that the employees they leave in their offices can fill gaps in their absence.

"In the past 10 years, I've made sure that the president of my company is the least important person for the day-to-day operation of the business," Searles said. "You hire good people, give them responsibility and revere them. If you can't staff your office in your absence, form an alliance with someone in your organization who can cover for you while you're away."

As a productivity expert, Searles teaches executives to boost their effectiveness by staying in touch with their assistants during their absence. It can cut several days off their recovery time when they return from a trip.

"You book an hour-long appointment with your assistant and call her at that time. Before you call, your assistant has gone through your voice mail and email."

Nora Spinks has learned through trial and error how to organize her life while she's travelling for business.

"There's productivity on many levels," says Spinks, president of Work Life Harmony, a Toronto company that consults on work-life balance policies. "There's the purpose of your trip, the things you're not doing in the office while you're away and the personal things that need to be done while you're away."

The confined space on airplanes in which its impossible to open a laptop if the passenger in front of you pushes his seat back persuaded Spinks to use a BlackBerry instead.

"If you're doing work that's sensitive because of security reasons, you don't want to expose your laptop screen anyway," she said. "I use my time flying to catch up on reading and to do low-security work. I sort and purge emails on my hand-held device and send email when I land," she said.

Spinks travels throughout North America for three out of every five work days.

"I can be in the air six, eight or 10 times in a week," she said. "So I have two sets of luggage. When I get home from a trip, I drop off my luggage full of dirty clothes and pick up my other suitcase full of clean clothes for tomorrow's trip."

The time at which she travels also enables her to be productive. When she flies west across the continent, she leaves home in the early evening. When she flies east, she leaves her west coast destination in the mid afternoon to ensure she'll be home by midnight and will not lose important daytime work hours in travel.

"Sleep is also really important," she said. "The people who struggle while they're on the road are the ones who party, stay out late or drink too much and still have to get up for that 5 a.m. conference call because it's 8 a.m. back home."

Both Spinks and Searles say it's also essential to keep up an exercise regimen on the road by using hotel fitness facilities.

"And I always like to have a good limo company at my disposal," Searles said. "This is not an extravagance, particularly in our climate, for people who travel across three time zones. It's really not safe to drive yourself under those circumstances."

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I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.